Mission President Letter: Instruction to Parents on Final Months of Mission

Greetings from Taiwan where your daughter, Sister Bruno, is serving in the Lord's vineyard. Even though Sister Bruno is not scheduled to complete her mission for many months, we desire to ensure post-mission plans are in place for her. The purpose of this letter is to help you plan in three major areas.

1. Departure date. Because of a six week transfer cycle, most missionaries will not return home on the same day they reported to the MTC. Elders are scheduled to return home approximately 2 1/2 weeks after their twenty-four month anniversary date and most Sisters will plan to return home about 1 week after their eighteen month anniversary. Currently, your daughter is scheduled to depart Taipei on Tuesday, July 20, 2010.

2. Parents visit. Per the new Missionary Handbook "Visits from family members . . . are against church policy. The impact of such visits may extend far beyond the visit itself, both before and after the visit, and among other missionaries." I'm sure you'll want to help your daughter maintain "singleness of heart and mind on the work of the Lord." The new Mission President's Handbook states "Missionaries should travel directly home from their missions . . . The Church discourages parents from picking up their missionary." We encourage all family members of every missionary to be considerate of this policy.

3. Education preparation. The prophet has encouraged missionaries to obtain some form of education to provide for their families in the future. While some of our missionaries have been to college prior to their mission, many have not. In order to keep missionaries focused on the work of the Lord, we ask that parents handle as much of the admission process as possible. You should be able to do all of the basic paperwork (application forms, financial aid, transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc.) much of which is now done online. If an essay is needed, please e-mail your daughter the topic/question. They can write an essay and e-mail or mail that to you, and you can include it in the application papers. For those who haven not been through this process, you generally need to apply 4-8 months in advance of a semester start at major universities and 1-3 months in advance of community colleges.

Thank you again for sending Sister Bruno to the people of Taiwan. Feel free to communicate with us by e-mail at 2019353@ldschurch.org or call 886-2-2393-3285. Please help your missionary remain focused on the work of the Lord until the day her foot touches ground at home. We ask that you keep "things of the world" out of your correspondence. Please do not remind her that time is ticking down; yet rather encourage her to endure to the end. I often refer missionaries to the example of Alma who, even when he could have retired, "could not rest" (Alma 43:1).